Special Service and Features
Webinar on “Fact checks during pandemic to minimize fear-Comparing false news and Facts during pandemic”
Field Outreach Bureau, Coimbatore & Press Information Bureau, Ministry of I & B, Government of India, Coimbatore organized a Webinar on Fact checks during pandemic to minimize fear-Comparing false news and Facts during pandemic on 20th May, 2021 Afternoon.
Shri J. Kamaraj, IIS, Director, Regional Outreach Bureau, Chennai welcomed all the dignitaries on the webinar. He further said that the chances of spreading the fake and misleading information and news on such platforms are more likely to happen when the use of such social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter and many more are high in this era of technology. It even holds some spaces in the states of our country with the highest literacy. The user of such platforms must be careful and beware of the authenticity and the reliability of the sources of the information before further spreading on social media especially during this pandemic.
Shri Nadeem Thufail T, Deputy Director, PIB Chennai said in his address that the whole world is dealing with the pandemic which is totally unknown and new to the medical sector now. We usually come across the fake news & false information on social media. Recently many myths and a lot of misleading information are going around on social media bout the COVID vaccination. The government departments especially Press Information Bureau at regional and National level is dedicated towards busting these types of information and news.
While demonstration of presentation, Shri Harshit Narang, IIS, Assistant Director, PIB Chandigarh said that various information and data are being created at an unprecedented rate on internet in no time. Fake news and information are unlikely to take down completely on internet.
Sometimes these types of information and news comes with the attachment like photo, video and document but the inappropriate and out of context use of the attachment makes it misleading and false even though the attachment is real and original.
All seems to be true and valid at first instance because of the psychological nature of our human brain which tends to believe this information.
He further added that the PIB Fact Check unit has been setup by the Government in December, 2019 which only aims to identify and bust fake news related to Government of India policies and schemes and other issue of national interest circulating on social media platform and mass media.
The unit acts on FACT Methodology- Find, Assess, Create & Target. Regional PIBs coordinates with headquarter to tackle the issues on misinformation.
While addressing on the webinar, Shri D. Premesh Kumar, Deputy Editor, Mathrubhumi News, Trivandrum said that mass and social media plays an important role in dissemination of the genuine information among the public. The misinformation and fake news has represented an important issue generating confusion among the population.
Prominent and mainstream media like TOI &The Hindu and many others has come up with the fact check columns nowadays while this setup has been already introduced by the international media like BBC.
Horrifying visuals like dead bodies and mass burial and cremation have been circulating on the social media in these times. Some people miscreant creates theses type of things for fun, money, influence and other factors. Nowadays many initiatives for public awareness from private and government establishments have been taken to tackle the issue.
Shri Sunil Prabhakar, Fact Check Trainer & Consultant, Mathrubhumi Online, Kochi said that some tools with technology can’t play the part in this fight without our observation skills. Misinformations, Disinformation & Misinformation are the types of information disorder which changes the original information into fake and false. So many remedies to fight COVID have been surfaced on social media now out of which most of them are probably misleading and false. The general public and online population should be more aware and careful about its authenticity before forwarding and sharing further any information.
At last, Smt. Kareena B Thengamam, Assistant Director, Field Outreach Bureau, Coimbatore concluded the webinar by proposing a vote of thanks towards guests and experts on the webinar for their participation.
The students from Kerala University, Trivandrum and Avinashilingam University, Coimbatore participated in the webinar.
Question & Answer & feedback session were also the part of the webinar.
E-Certificates will be sent to the participants on their mail for the participation.
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